Vote Buying in Brazil: From Impunity to Prosecution

Abstract

Politicians often buy votes with impunity. Brazil outlawed vote buying for many years, but prosecutions were rare. However, popular pressure mounted against the practice in the late 1990s. Over one million Brazilians signed a petition against vote buying, leading to the country's first law by popular initiative passed by the national legislature. The law not only surmounted key obstacles to the popular initiative process but also dramatically increased prosecutions for clientelism during elections. Campaign handouts became the top reason that politicians were ousted in Brazil, with over a thousand removals from office. This study examines the role of civil society and the judiciary in the enactment and implementation of this important legislation. Os políticos frequentemente compram votos sem serem punidos. O Brasil proibiu a compra de votos por muitos anos, mas processos penais foram raros. No entanto, a pressão popular contra a prática aumentou no final dos anos 90. Mais de um milhão de brasileiros assinaram uma petição contra a compra de votos, levando à primeira lei do país de iniciativa popular a ser aprovada pelo Congresso Nacional. Essa lei não apenas superou os principais obstáculos do processo de iniciativa popular, mas também aumentou dramaticamente os processos por clientelismo eleitoral. A compra de votos se tornou a principal razão pela qual os políticos foram afastados no Brasil, com mais de mil cassações de mandatos. Este estudo examina o papel da sociedade civil e do judiciário na promulgação e implementação desta importante legislação.

Does Combating Corruption Reduce Clientelism?

“…Over the past two decades, the Brazilian government has engaged in substantial efforts to reduce clientelism. Since 2000, electoral courts have removed over a thousand local politicians from office for distributing campaign handouts, making it the top reason why politicians are ousted in Brazil (Nichter 2021).…”

“…Our study provides rigorous evidence suggesting that anti-corruption audits decrease important aspects of clientelism. We first consider local politicians' provision of campaign handouts, which legally constitutes vote buying in Brazil and leads to many removals from office (Nichter 2021). In the 2012 election year, audits decreased the provision of private goods during campaign visits by 3.0 percentage points -a remarkable decline of 51 percent.…”

Multi-level legislative representation in an inchoate party system: Mass-elite ideological congruence in Brazil

“…Parties have been shown to lack a core of ideological supporters, and party identification is generally weak (Ames, 2002; Mainwaring, 1999; Samuels, 2006; Samuels and Zucco, 2018). Consistent with this view, legislative candidates at both the national and state levels often employ non-programmatic electoral strategies to win votes, ranging from recruiting local brokers to offering employment and resources to individuals and groups of voters (Nichter, 2021; Novaes, 2018). Furthermore, party switching is common in Brazil and is often seen as a strategy to pursue resources for reelection (Desposato, 2006; Novaes, 2018).…”

Analysis of the quality of local council elections in Hoima city, mid-western Uganda

“…From available studies, vote buying appears to be real especially given the mechanisms aimed to reinforce its agents (Eguia & Xefteris, 2021). In all these, vote buying is understood as ethically wrong (Umbers, 2018;Louis-Sidois & Musolff, 2020), as a consequence, a number of nations have moved to outlaw the practice, such as Brazil (Nichter, 2021). In the United States (Ulrich, Paolo & Michaela, 2019), vote buying has stretched beyond Federal and/or state or local council elections to the congress on legislative resolutions.…”